Statistical Journal of the IAOS 36 (2020) 535–547 535 DOI 10.3233/SJI-190604 IOS Press Methods of statistical estimation of circular migration and formal and informal employment in the Moscow agglomeration based on the integration of various data sources Polina Kriuchkovaa;b, Filipp Sleznovc;d;∗, Denis Fomchenkoc, Vladimir Laikamc and Igor Zakharchenkovc aThe Department of Economic Policy and Development, Moscow City Government, Moscow, Russia bHigher School of Economics, The National Research University, Moscow, Russia cThe Analytical Center of Moscow Government, Moscow, Russia dLomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia Abstract. Assessing circular migration, formal and informal employment and its spatiotemporal characteristics is a complex methodological and practical task for official statistics. A combination of various data sources, including official statistics, administrative data, and data from mobile operators, may provide new opportunities for obtaining circular migration, formal and informal employment estimates for the purposes of various levels of government, including the level of city management. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the use of administrative data together with the mobile operators’ data can promptly improve the accuracy and informativeness of statistical indicators of the labor market including formal and informal employment, circular migration, etc. The population and employment in Moscow and in the Moscow agglomeration are the subjects of this paper. Authors combine several data sources such as the federal administrative data from the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation and the Federal Tax Authority, data from the Moscow city online public services, data from the mobile phone operators, as well as official statistical information provided by Russian Statistic Authority. The cross-analysis of the data provides important information for the city governance: – estimations of the permanent and temporary population of Moscow and the Moscow agglomeration; – the scale and main directions of the circular migration to and from Moscow and the subsequent delimitation of the real borders of the Moscow agglomeration; – formal and informal employment in the city. The limits of the data used, as well as recommendations for the incorporating administrative and mobile operators’ data into the system of official statistics and city management, are also discussed in this paper. Keywords: Administrative data, mobile operators’ data, population statistics, labor market, informal employment, formal employ- ment, circular migration, Moscow agglomeration 1. Introduction Population and labor market statistics including the ∗Corresponding author: Filipp Sleznov, The Analytical Center of Moscow Government, Moscow, Russia. E-mail: SleznovFV@ formal and informal employment evaluation is impor- develop.mos.ru. tant for the decision-making on the national (federal), 1874-7655/20/$35.00 c 2020 – IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved 536 P. Kriuchkova et al. / Methods of statistical estimation of circular migration and formal and informal employment regional and local levels of administration. It is nec- istrative and the mobile operators’ data, can promptly essary for the budgeting, development of public trans- improve the accuracy and informativeness of statisti- portation, social security, health protection, education, cal indicators including permanent and day population, etc. The official statistical data is insufficient for manag- formal and informal employment and its localization, ing entire urban agglomerations in part because of their circular migration, etc. The population and employment population size and ensuing consequences [29]. The in the Moscow city and in the Moscow agglomeration key problems in this field include lack of data, incorrect as one of the largest in the world are the subjects of selection of companies for representing economy of a this paper. The authors’ view is primary the view of the city, late availability of data, methodological changes users of the statistical information for the tasks of the and gaps in time series, etc. [3,46]. The combination of city governance. different data sources including official statistics, the administrative and the mobile operators’ data can give a new perspective for the city management. 2. Study of the problem Over the past few decades, many of the largest urban agglomerations have faced the problem of explosive The problem of estimating the population, in growth of their influence on neighboring territories and, general, and the components of it, in particular, has as a result, the problem of increasing circular migra- been discussed in scientific and authority communities tion [2,13,20]. Its extremely poor controllability by di- for a long time. The increasing complexity of socio- rect regulation and varying nature of this migration (la- economic processes in society and the accelerated trend bor, leisure, social, etc.) predetermined the challenges of urban sprawl necessitate advancing the method of for the agglomeration authorities and national statistical population statistics. The scientific community has be- institutions to assess the extent of this phenomenon. At gun to develop tools for estimating the population size the current stage of the world economic development, and scale of migration flows, which differed from pre- it is the largest urban agglomerations that face with the viously dominant direct accounting methods. The most need for more reliable statistics of their population and important works for the current stage were the works in its flows between neighboring territories due to their the field of studying migration systems as an element of significantly higher unit costs of infrastructure develop- a systems approach in demographic and geographical ing, in the broad sense of the word, in comparison with research [41]. A greater emphasis in such works was on less urbanized territories. The largest cities and their the processes of international migration, however, the agglomerations, which have large financial, labor and concept of “migration chains” was applied at the micro intellectual resources, act today as drivers of the new level of cities [39]. This method involved the analysis statistical tools’ development, including methods for of local groups of migrants (usually united by ethnic- estimating the population size, circular migration and ity) and their “migration chains” – combination of the employment structure. main direction of movement, the reasons for migration Large cities authorities are not the only parties con- and communication with familiar people in the desti- cerned by quality population statistics – national (fed- nation city. This allowed the first researches in the field eral) authorities are also interested in it [15]. The main of the current assessment and forecast of the scale of interest from the view of national authorities is a com- population migration in cities and the level of informal bination between a better understanding of the socio- employment in them. economic processes taking place in the country and, the A fundamentally new round of migration analysis, es- associated with it, more advantageous budget spend- pecially circular migration, has been the development of ing [28]. In the context of the growing role of the largest chronographic concepts, which is closely related to the urban agglomerations in the overall economic deve- Swedish geographer T. Hagerstrand and his students. In lopment of the whole country the allocation of prior- these works, individual trajectories of the movement of ities for the national budget spending is of particular people were analyzed for the first time [6,16,38]. Re- relevance [47]. Involving the interests of various levels searches in this area was mainly based on field studies authorities in the processes of assessing statistical in- of road traffic analyses in the suburban area of large dicators of population size, circular migration and the cities and highlighting main borders of the circular la- labor market suggests the multiscale relevance of this bor migration. This served as a prototype for present study. researches with the using of modern technology. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how the For now, the key problem in field of estimating the use of variation of different data sources, such as admin- extent of circular migration and informal employment P. Kriuchkova et al. / Methods of statistical estimation of circular migration and formal and informal employment 537 in the economy, as well as other adjacent topics, was circular migration and informal employment analysis. imperfection and significant limitations on use of the The first circular labor migration studies using such “classical” statistical data sources such as companies’ data were carried out in the USA and EU countries surveys, census and other similar methods [22,23]. in the late 1990s – early 2000s [7]. A significant part Moreover, the old methods of statistical observations in of these studies examined the distance of daily rides many cases did not allow calculating indicators in the and their causes, as well as the main and local centers field of circular migration and informal employment. delimitation in agglomerations [8,37]. Earlier research The solution was the usage of alternative data sources was based on the analysis of the simple density of mo- and their inclusion in the general statistical system. bile signals (number of calls per square) depending on One